Urban Drama Four Feature Collector's Set - DVD

THE RIVER NIGER
An all-star cast performs in this film adaptation of the Tony Award® winning off-Broadway hit play. In this gripping, intimate look at life in the ghetto, Johnny Williams (James Earl Jones) is a house painter who moonlights as a poet, struggling to financially and emotionally support his cancer-ridden wife Mattie (Cicely Tyson). But times are tough and the poverty-troubled streets are even tougher, and it takes every ounce of Johnny's love and courage for the couple to make it through their strife, finding redemption in The River Niger.

BLOOD TIDE
Frye (James Earl Jones) is a hard-driven archaeologist who takes his quest a little too far when he awakens an unknown species of sea creature that has been asleep for centuries off the coast of a Greek island. The tale of the terrifying beast has been passed down from generation to generation as a mysterious myth, but only the island's aged folks remember the story well. And when they tell Frye what he must do to stop the horrifying creature, it is almost as horrible as the sea beast itself--for the only way to end the killing, is to sacrifice an innocent virgin...

DEADLY DRIFTER
Rooted in a novel written by Ronald Sukenick, Deadly Drifter is an atypical, covertly satirical film that archives the life of a nomadic philosopher who contemplates American culture and strives to discover himself. In his travels, the main character, Rex (Peter Coyote), stumbles upon everything from sex and drugs to political mistrust and extremist conspiracies. In the 1960s, Rex takes his revolutionary views to various places across the U.S., and by the '70s and '80s, he is horror-struck by society's disintegration from the idealism of the previous years, to the adaptation of materialism and egocentricity. A self-invented "urban guerilla" of sorts, Rex is sent on clandestine missions by a mysterious employer who relays his assignments through peculiar methods. As he struggles to find himself, what Rex finds is more than he bargained for--that he is forever estranged from the very society he questions.

RESTING PLACE
The mysterious death of an army officer comes under investigation by Major Kendall Laird (John Lithgow) as the young soldier's parents (Morgan Freeman and CCH Pounder) seek an honorable burial place, out of respect for their son. The parents are assisted by their neighbor, Mrs. McAlister (Frances Sternhagen), in their patriotic and racially divided community.